Thursday, November 3, 2011

Iceland did something right in the credit crisis, perhaps offering lessons both for Greece and Occupy Wall Street protestersBy Michael Scott Moore, Miller-McCune

The latest euro rescue plan lurched into crisis this week after the Greek prime minister decided to put the package to a popular vote. This unexpected gesture of independence “sent tremors through Europe’s financial markets,” according to The New York Times, and “hammered” U.S. markets, “showing once again how the domestic politics of even the smallest members of the European Union can create troubles” beyond all proportion.

The panic over Greece, of course, is panic over the euro. Another European country, Iceland, took a far more radical path than did Greece, yet it went largely unnoticed. Iceland, in 2009, did what Greece would like to do now: it let its banks fail, and told their creditors to take a hike.

Two years on, Iceland’s economy is recovering, while Greece and Ireland and other euro-zone members struggle with huge taxpayer-funded bank bailouts and austerity measures that will probably fail to create jobs. “Iceland did the right thing by making sure its payment systems continued to function while creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, told Bloomberg. “Ireland’s done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That’s probably the worst model.”

TARIQ ALI: The Spirit of the AgeHow do the 99% compare with mass protests of the past – and can they succeed?“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at,” wrote Oscar Wilde, “for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing. And when humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.”

Hello world. This is a message from anonymous. This is a message to the world. Do you want to know why your peers are acting a bit strange? Do you want to know why the public is marching through Wall Street wearing masks? Do you want to know why there is a revolution brewing? I'll tell you why. They have sent our friends and fathers to perish in the deserts of Iraq, and the mountains of Afghanistan. As soon as we stepped foot out of our parents homes, they shackled our feet to the banks. They have poisoned our oceans, polluted our air, and burned our forests. They have stripped us of the right to the truth, surrounded the government in secrecy and increased their marketing campaigns. They have stolen trillions of dollars from our coffers, and said that they were too big to fail. We put our trust in hope, and voted for change, and we recieved empty promises and frail leadership. Our generation will never see social security. Our generation will never see the end of our debt. But we will see the end of these crooks and these liars, and you can help. The movement has gone global. The elites are terrified, and they should be. Rome is burning, Greece is rioting, London is clenching its fist, France is grinding its teeth, America is already in the midst of a revolution. On top of this, Anonymous brings word of a new operation. On November 5th we are asking every citizen of the world to pull their money out of corporate banks, and into local credit unions. Our goal is to shut their doors, and close their blinds. Our goal is to break their backs and blind their eyes. We are the antibodies of the world. We have come alive and active to rid the world of parasites and moral disease. Remember, remember the 5th of November. We are anonymous, we are legion. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect us.

On November 5th move your money out of corporate banks an into local credit unions. Make the banks hurt.

Commemorate Parihaka on the 5th of November with Occupy Ōtautahi Christchurch

The 5th of November is an important date in the history of Aotearoa as it marks the day that Parihaka was invaded by British soldiers in 1881. This Saturday is November the 5th so Occupy Ōtautahi Christchurch will host talks on Parihaka to remember the movement and learn valuable lessons on passive resistance.

In 1867 Maori prophets set up a peaceful community at Parihaka to protest against the illegal land confiscations of the colonial British empire. The community thrived and grew to more than 2000 people until it was stormed by 1600 British soldiers at the dawn of the 5th of November, 1881. Soldiers were greeted by hundreds of children skipping and offering kai, but destroyed the camp, arrested hundreds of nonviolent protesters and raped wahine. Parihaka is an important event in the history of this country and must be remembered.

Come down to Occupy Corner in South Hagley Park (opposite the hospital) from 10am on Saturday for Parihaka workshops, kai, music, and a free market where people can drop off their unwanted possessions and find new treasures. Workshops will focus on the spiritual component of the Parihaka movement, models of passive resistance and Parihaka's relevance to the Occupy Movement today. These talks will begin from 11am and finish by 1pm when we will travel to Hornby to picket the ANZCO offices in support of workers locked out of their jobs at Canterbury Meat Packers. Following that we will return to Occupy Corner around 6pm for a free dinner, General Korero and Guy Fawkes celebrations.

Occupy Ōtautahi Christchurch has been based in Occupy Corner at South Hagley Park for almost three weeks. In support of the Occupy Wall Street phenomena the group hold open daily general assemblies and ‘free markets’ as well as community events each weekend. They have been busy networking with community groups and organisations, and supply free kai and coffee to the public.More information can be found at www.occupychristchurch.org.

Following continued opposition from the locals as well as non-governmental organizations, the organizers of Tomatina festival which was to be held at club west end in Saligao have decided hold a musical show instead on 5th of November. The decision came after social activists from Saligao village met with the organizers on Wednesday and requested them not to use tomatoes for the festival..

From nieuwsbreker:Report: U.K. preparing for military strike on Iran nuclear facilitiesThe Guardian newspaper says U.K. increasingly concerned over Iran's enrichment program, and is preparing to deploy warships to assist a possible U.S. strike.

At OccupyLSX’s General Assembly yesterday – at St Paul’s Churchyard just by the London Stock Exchange and St Paul’s Cathedral – 500 people unanimously ratified the call to action highlighting the global structures which they believe to be unjust, unsustainable and undemocratic.

The statement is aimed at sending a powerful message to the G20 leaders meeting in Cannes, who will make key decisions that will impact on the lives of billions of people. The short, four point statement, which will continue to be drafted by occupations around the world and the G20 Counter Summit, criticises the current global system for creating inequality and environmental destruction. It calls for a global system which is democratic, just and sustainable, with the world’s resources favouring people not profit.

Ragnchild Dale, one of the authors of the statement said, “We want real dialogue and real debate to create a statement which represent the real voices of the people to counter the false dialogue of the G20 leaders. Our current global system is unjust and is only causing destruction and suffering.

At the occupation in London, a new banner has been erected, reading “Real Democracy Now”, reaffirming the principles and goals of the camp and against the lack of democracy protesters feel is present in their government and the G20 summit.

Jammie Arad, supporter of OccupyLSX, said, “We are asking questions that the G20 will never ask, such as why are decisions that affect 7 billion people made by a powerful elite behind closed doors? Why do we rely on a global economic system based on infinite growth when we know that the world’s resources are finite? Why do we assume the G20 are to be trusted to put people and sustainable living before profits and corporate interests?”

Proposed global Occupy Statement:

Our global system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust, driven by profit in the interest of the few.

An economic system based on infinite growth, but which relies on finite resources, is leading humanity and the environment to destruction. As long as this system remains in place, people of the world continue to suffer from an increasingly unfair share of income and wealth.

We seek a global system that is democratic, just and sustainable. The world’s resources must not go to the military or corporate profit, but instead go towards caring for people’s needs: water, food, housing, education, health, community.

An international, global collaboration has started, and is working on a statement that will unite the occupy movements across the world in their struggle for an alternative that is focused on and originates from people and their environment.

Less than a month after Johnson & Johnson ranked as the most trusted brand in America in Forbes‘ survey comes a report that could give consumers pause, calling the company out for removing chemicals of concern in its iconic baby shampoo in some countries, but not others. The product currently on shelves in the United States, Canada, and China still contains known carcinogens. In recent years, J&J baby shampoo has become the poster child for the need for chemical reform in the United States; nothing says we need tighter chemical regulation than toxic baby shampoo.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics came out with the news two years ago that Johnson & Johnson’s iconic baby shampoo contained the formaldehyde-releasing preservative quaternium-15, as well as the chemical byproduct 1,4-dioxane. Formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane are known carcinogens. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has reported that “the presence of 1,4-dioxane, even as a trace contaminant, is cause for concern,” and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services added formaldehyde to its list of known human carcinogens in June 2011.

In 2009, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, along with 40 other organizations (including American Nurses Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners) sent a letter to J&J outlining their concerns with the company’s products, particularly its baby shampoo. The American Nurses Association and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics have since met several times with Johnson & Johnson executives to discuss the matter. The content of those discussions is confidential, but it seems as though if progress were being made, the organization would not have been sending around its latest report, under embargo, yesterday.

According to Reuters -...The United States agreed to a compromise allowing Zimbabwe to export diamonds that human rights groups say are tainted by abuses, to prevent the paralysis of the global system for stopping trade in "blood diamonds," the State Department said on Wednesday.

The United States, Canada and the European Union dropped their objections and agreed to allow Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from its Marange field after verification by a Kimberley Process monitoring team, the World Diamond Council announced on Tuesday.

The Kimberly Process is an international government certification scheme set up in 2003 to prevent the trade in diamonds that fund conflicts.

The decision by the United States, Canada and the EU was strongly condemned by human rights groups who maintain that the Marange diamonds are tainted by abuses tied to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government...

Zimbabwe: Rampant Abuses in Marange Diamond FieldsShooting defenseless miners and unleashing dogs against them is inhuman, degrading and barbaric. The diamonds from the Marange fields are tainted with abuse.Tiseke Kasambala, senior Africa researcher.

Counter-propaganda:Justice and Diamonds in Zimbabwe: Saving Kimberley from ItselfAndrew Jillions joins us again to discuss the Kimberly Process of diamond certification in the context Zimbabwe. As Andrew explains, the case of Zimbabwe risks undermining a process which, for all its faults, remains the best way to prevent the use of diamonds to fuel conflict and human rights abuses.

In a new report, Robert Weissman of Multinational Monitor points to twelve deregulatory steps that led to the financial meltdown. It also does an analysis of the amount of money Wall Street poured into Washington in campaign contributions and lobbying over the last ten years. Their answer? A staggering $5.1 billion over the past decade.

This document makes it possible to understand how international law and justice works, but mostly how its basic principles can be bypassed. The resolutions passed against Lybia are based on various allegations : notably on the statement claiming that Gaddafi had lead jet attacks on his own people and engaged in a violent repression against uprising, killing more than 6000 civilians. These allegations were spread before they could have been verified. Eventhough it was on the basis of this claim that the Lybian Jamahiriya governement was suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council, before being referred to the United Nations Security Council.One of the main sources for the claim that Gaddafi was killing his own people is the Libyan League for Human Rights, an organisation linked to the International Federation of Human Rights (the FIDH). On the 21st of February 2011, the General-Secretary of the LLHR, Dr. Soliman Bouchuiguir, initiated a petition in collaboration with the organisation UN Watch and the National Endowment for Democracy. This petition was signed by more than 70 NGOs. Then a few days later, on the 25th of February, Dr. Soliman Bouchuiguir went to U.N. Human Rights Council in order to expose the allegations concerning the crimes of Gaddafi's government. In July 2011 we went to Geneva to interview Dr. Soliman Bouchuiguir.Soliman Bouchuguir is an unheard of figure for most, but he has authored a doctoral thesis that has been widely quoted and used in strategic circles in the United States. This thesis was published in 1979 as a book, The Use of Oil as a Political Weapon: A Case Study of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. The thesis is about the use of oil as an economic weapon by Arabs, but can easily be applied to the Russians, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and others. It examines economic development and economic warfare and can also be applied to vast regions, including all of Africa.Bouchuguir's analytical thesis reflects an important line of thinking in Washington, as well as London and Tel Aviv. It is both the embodiment of a pre-existing mentality, which includes U.S. National Security Advisor George F. Kennan's arguments for maintaining a position of disparity through a constant multi-faced war between the U.S. and its allies on one hand and the rest of the world on the other hand. The thesis can be drawn on for preventing the Arabs, or others, from becoming economic powers or threats. In strategic terms, rival economies are pinned as threats and as "weapons." This has serious connotations.Soliman Bouchuiguir, former president of the Libyan League for Human Rights with symbiotic ties to the National Transitional Council, generated the pack of lies that justified NATO's war allegedly to protect the Libyan population. He is currently the new Libyan ambassador to Switzerland.

http://www.emmettlollis.comhttp://profiles.google.com/emmettlollis"Note: Pepper Spray section starts at 5:40!In the early morning hours of November 2nd police raided Tulsa's Occupy Wall Street protest. According to Occupy Tulsa Organizers, the Tulsa police chief arranged a bargain with Occupy Tulsa earlier in the day where the volunteers would have a sit in arrest, they were to be carried off without the use of pepper spray.

In the video you can see that several protesters were pepper sprayed while sitting down on the ground, they were clearly not posing any sort of threat. They were sprayed directly in the eyes at close range. If there isn't a legal question here there certainly should be an ethical question. Is it right to use excessive force and torture just to prove you can do it? If the police chief were actually interested in discouraging arrests it would make more sense for him to let them know pepper spray would be used in the situation.

I decided to present the raw footage from the time police moved in throughout the entire arrest proceeding to eliminate accusations of deceptive edits. There is a small 5 second break in the middle of the video due to file size limits on my DSLR where I had to restart the video portion."

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Roots

Revelation 13

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy...

...And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?...

Mark 13

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.